The Chicago Traveler

This season of the Bravo network’s Top Chef was filmed here in Chicago, exposing competing chefs from all over the country to all the culinary treats the Windy City has to offer.

This week’s Quickfire challenge required each of the chefs to create a taco dish that was suitable for fine dining. Along with earning its creator immunity in the following Elimination challenge, the winning dish was placed on the menu at Rick Bayless’ restaurant, Topolobampo. Sure, it may sound funny, but the flavors here are amazing. You can read more about it and its sister restaurant in my post: Frontera Grill & Topolobampo.

In the Elimination challenge, the chefs were divided into two teams of seven. They had to cater a Chicago neighborhood’s annual block party, using only ingredients that they received from that street’s residents.

Finding this particular block took quite a bit of investigating on my part. I watched lots of footage in slow motion, looking for a brief glimpse of a house number. I also looked into city street closures and made good use of the “Street View” feature on Google Maps. After all that, I think I can conclusively say that the Block Party was held on the 4400 N block of Richmond Street. Located on Chicago’s north side, this neighborhood is commonly referred to as Ravenswood or Ravenswood Manor. Businesses within a 1.5-mile (2.4 km) radius of this block include:

• Noon O’Kabab
• sola
• Pete’s Pizza
• Crabbby Kim’s
• Hot Doug’s
• Mayan Sol Latin Grill

For more information on this week’s Top Chef episode, check out fellow b5media blog, Reality Exploits.

Photo credit: Wikipedia